Anime Expo 2011

Oh my gahhh~ The first four days of July have been the most exhausting, tedious, life endangering days in my life, and yet, it was all fun. Don't know what I'm talking about? Well, it's either you're not interested in conventions or you're just not in the area. Yes, yes. `Tis Anime Expo 2011.

Where shall I begin... Well from the beginning of course. Anime Expo, held July 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th at the LA Convention Center in Downtown LA. Anime Expo is something that I've experienced 4 times so far, including this year, so I know what to expect. It's fun, amusing, awe inspiring, but, at the same time, it's a grueling, tiring, exhausting marathon of standing for hours on end with the lack of hydration, food and patience. There are so many people and so many cosplayers. You'll find yourself in a daze from the amount of sensory stimulation, yet still alert enough to spot you're about to step into a picture of this fanboy with a Yoko cosplayer with nice boobs.

This year, my friend and I cosplayed as Pokemon trainers. My friend (let's call her MK) was Dawn or Hikari from the 4th generation of Pokemon() while I was Iris from the 5th generation. No pictures though because we were mostly lazy to take pictures of ourselves actually at the convention. MK and I spent our four days standing in lines, trying to win raffles, taking pictures of cosplayers, stalking the "gatherings," walking through Exhibit Hall, taking pictures of cosplayers, walking through Artist Alley, taking pictures of cosplayers and shopping. Oh man, we were so exhausted after the first day. And the next day. And the day after that. And the half day after that. I'm posting this now because I've finally recovered from my fatigue. So basically, we spent most of our time taking pictures of cosplayers. I had a quest after the 2nd day. I had become obsessed with the anime Durarara!! and I was going to get pictures of the cast.

I did. There's also favorites of mine like Hi Chew King and the Prinny standing around the NIS America booth in Exhibit Hall.

And there's just some weird things...

(By the way, MK and I saw a Storm Trooper dressed as a Touhou character near the Touhou gathering in the West Hall Entrance. He was so cute posing!) But I digress. It's all about the merchandise.

I usually just go to Anime Expo to get stuff that I can't normally get in the Asian stores around me.

In total, I wasted around $120+ US dollars on merchandise. What I'm showing you now is the stuff that I bought for myself. The total of $120 does not reflect what I'm showing you here because I had already given away the merchandise that I bought as gifts for my friends.

I got a mini desktop Pig Vaccum for $5 and a mini Axew plushie for $13. The Axew plush was a necessity for my Iris cosplay. Piggy's nose is sideways because I was playing around with him before taking this picture.

I got 2 grab bags of accessories for $16, worth a total of $30 if each accessory was bought individually. A good deal since I got 2 headbands, 4 small bow clips, a large bow clip, a cream filled chocolate cookie compact mirror with a compliment comb, and 3 different colored rose clips. I also got a fat twisty candy clip for $5 from the same vendor at Artist Alley. It's so plushy and cute; I love it! Wrapped around my orange iPod Nano is a pair of pink Rilakkuma earbuds, also from the same vendor. I got them for $15. I was looking around Exhibit Hall and saw that a lot of the booths were selling headphones or earbuds so I thought to myself, "Hmm, this is a sign! My earbuds were murdered a few days ago, so this is Fate telling me that I need to buy earbuds." And I saw them and fell in love with them. Also in this picture is a small light green jewelry box that I got for $12 and attached to my keys is a Slowpoke keychain that I got for $9. If you didn't know, Slowpoke is my favorite Pokemon.

I got three prints, one of Touko from Pokemon Black and White with the evolutions of Solesis, one with Izaya and Shizuo from Durarara!! being their sexy selves and one with various 4th generation Pokemon and Lucas, Dawn and Barry. These shall go on the wall of my dorm... Respectively, I got these prints for $6, $10, $14. In the middle is a decorative 4 gig USB. Don't believe me?

IT'S BEAUTIFULLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL~
I freaked out when I saw this. It was $25, however it usually went for $50 on the distributor's website so I couldn't resist.

So, that was Anime Expo. I hear that there's an update (but what am I talking about.) I'll post some information about the latest patch and event tomorrow after doing some deliveries with my Mama. In the meantime, don't smudge the green on your thumbs you lolbox fiends!